Monday, April 30, 2007

Dear Comrades the Standing Committee of JCM National Council Staff Side had tendered Oral Evidence before the 6th Pay Commission on 16th, 17th and 18th April 2007 in New Delhi. The Circular of the Confederation in this regard is reproduced below:

CONFEDERATION OF CENTRAL GOVERNMENT

EMPLOYEES AND WORKERS

Manishinath Bhawan

A/2/95 RajouriGarden

New Delhi. 110 027

Phone No. 011 2510 5324 <> Fax 011 2510 5324

Mobile : 98110 48303

Conf. Cir.5/2007.Dated: 20.04.2007.

Dear Comrades,

Oral evidence before the 6th CPC-

Standing Committee Staff Side JCM.

On 16th, 17th and 18th April, 2007, the standing Committee of the Staff Side JCM, National council, tendered evidence before the 6 th CPC on the three memorandum they had submitted to the Commission viz.

i.On interim Relief.

ii.On minimum wage, pay scales, Pay & Allowances,

iii.On pension.

Interim Relief:

On 16th, the staff side presented before the Commission, the necessity for the grant of the Interim Relief we had demanded, i.e. 15% ofPay + DP, subject to a minimum of Rs 1000/- as Interim Relief.The Commission is of the view that

(i)since the Central Govt. employees are not in distress, they are not entitled for anyrelief,

(ii)since the Commission has not yet come to any conclusion of the probable final wage structure, it may not be possible to determine the Interim relief,

(iii)any amount of Interim Relief if granted immediately would only to add to the woes of inflation.

The Staff Side pointed out that the interim relief demanded by them was not in the nature of a relief as is understood by the Commission. What they have demanded, they explained was only an advance payment to be adjusted against the final settlement or to be subsumed in the arrears of salary as the date of effect of the Commission's recommendation has to be 1.1.2006. They also added that they are entitled to the Interim relief because of the delay in setting up the commission itself.If the I.R.is noted granted the employees will have to wait for 24 month even if the Commission adheres to the18months time schedule specified under the terms of reference. They also brought to the notice of the commission that if the arrears are to be drawn in one go, a large part of it has to be remitted back to the Govt. as tax and the employees will not be able to invest the same in any tax saving devices retrospectively. It is however, evident that the Commission has almost made up its mind on this issue i.e. not to grant Interim Relief.

Minimum wage

The main memorandum was taken up for discussion on 17th.It is noted that:

The Commission will consider the minimum wage as per 15 ILC norms subject to verification of prices and the relevance and requirements of the addition made thereon by the staff side.

The desirability of having parity with the wages obtaining in PSUs will be borne in mind while computing the minimum wage.

They disfavored the rate of increase of NNP or GDP as a base for computation of minimum wage.

The reductions of the No. of employees between 1995 to 2006 as also the reduction of wage and allowances as a percentage to Revenue expenditure have been noted.

The submission of the staff side of the capacity of the Govt. to meet the additional expenditure due to revision will also be considered.

The staff side brought to the notice of the commission that the fixation of minimum wage by the successive commissions had the following impact:

2nd CPC2.5 times

3rd CPC2.6 times

4th CPC3.2 times

5th CPC3.4 times

6th CPC3.9 times if the demand of the staff side is accepted.

Proposed Pay Structure:

The staff side explained the rationale adopted by them in the construction of Pay Scales without any maximum and added that the conversion factor would ensure the existing relativities. The change in the conversion factor for Pay scales upto S-5 and S-7 was also explained.The Commission enquired in detail about the advantage of an open ended pay scale vis-à-vis a master scale of pay.

Date of effect

The Commission may concede the demand for giving effect to their recommendation from 1.1.2006

Allowances:

DA.The Commission may propose that the present scheme for calculation of DA on the basis of all the India annual average CPI index (IW) might be continued.

HRA: The staff side demand for reducing the classification of towns and cities into three instead ofsix will be considered.

CCAThe demand to replace the present slab system by percentage linked to basic pay would be looked into. The Staff side has also stated that all allowances may be expressed interms of percentage of Basic Pay.

Transport Allowance: The Board of Arbitration award to link the allowance to Basic pay in place of the scale of pay has been specifically presented before the Commission.

Fixation in the revised scale: The staff side demanded for point to point fixation that might be considered by the Commission.

Classification of Posts: The present classification may Continue, without the nomenclature of Gazetted or Non-gazetted.

Pension:(Existing )

Commission was of the opinion that to facilitate easy exit the present pension i.e. 50% of salary might be made available to whoever wants to seek Voluntary Retirement after completion of 15/20 years of service.

Pension for those who superannuate might be at a higher percentage, as demanded by the staff side.

Increasing the rate of pension for those who live beyond the age of 70 will be considered.

Average emoluments may not undergo any change.The anomalous situation that might arise in the transitory stage of wage revision might be taken care of. The pensioners might be covered under a group insurance scheme for medicare.

The Commission may not look into the pension schemed for those who are recruited after 1.1.2004.

The Commission had been positive in its response to many of the staff side demands presented before them, except of course in the matter of grant of Interim Relief.

With greetings,

Yours fraternally,

K.K.N. Kutty,

Secretary General.

Kindly refer to the Confederation Circular letter No. 4/2007 dated 13.4.2007.The JCA of Postal Federations has reached a settlement of their Charter of Demands and accordingly the Strike which was to commence from 24th April, 2007 has been deferred. We, therefore, inform all affiliates and COCs that the solidarity actions proposed by us for 24th and 26th April, 2007 and the one day Strike slated for 3rd May, 2007 stands withdrawn.

Monday, April 23, 2007

Dear Comrades! Please find the gist of discussions between the Secretary [P] and the leaders of the Postal Joint Council of Action based on which the indefinite strike has been deferred:

Government of India

Ministry of Communications & IT Department of Posts

Dak Bhawan. Sansad Marg,

New Delhi - 110 001.

No.8-1/2007-SR

Dated the April 20, 2007

1.

The Secretary General,

National Federation of Postal Employees,

1st Floor, North AvenuePostofficeBuilding,

New Delhi -110001.

2.

The Secretary General,

Federation of National Postal Organisations,

T-24, Atul Grove Road,

New Delhi -110001.

Subject: Gist of discussions of the meeting taken by the Secretary (P) on19.4.2007 with the Staff side to discuss on the charter of demands.

Sir,

I am directed to enclose a copy of the gist of discussions of the meeting taken by the Secretary (P) on 19.4.2007 on charter of demands for information and necessary action.

Yours faithfully,

Sd/-

(Subhash Chander)

Director (SR & Legal)

Gist of discussions of the meeting taken by Secretary(Posts)

19.04.2007 with N.F.P.E./F.N.P.O. to discuss the Charter of Demands .

A meeting with Secretary (Posts) and the Staff side was held on 19.04.2007 to discuss the Charter of Demands submitted by the N.F. P.E. and F.N.P.O. on 09.04.2007. At the very outset, Secretary (Posts) impressed upon the Staff side to present a united front in view of the stiff competition that the Department is facing from the couriers and the challenges from other vested interests as well. Secretary (Posts) stressed that any disruption in the services at this stage would distract from our efforts to strengthen and expand the postal business in the country. Secretary (Posts) thereafter, discussed the Charter of Demands with the Staff side. The gist of discussions is as under:

With most of the issues mentioned in the Charter of Demands, having been resolved, the Secretary (Posts) expressed the hope that the Staff side would continue to extend their cooperation in furthering the growth of postal services in the country.

CHARTER OF DEMANDS

Item No.1- ­

Appointment of Judicial Committee I Commission for GDS and grant status and Pension to GDS Employees.

Staff side was apprised that in view of special status of GDS, they were out of the purview of JCM scheme which also takes them beyond the scope of 6th Central Pay Commission. However, the Staff Side insisted on another attempt to be made for consideration of GDSs issues by the 6th CPC, set up for Central Government Employees. The request of the Staff Side that the matter may be referred to 6th Central Pay Commission by the Department has been considered. The Department will make the request to the Government that 6th Central Pay Commission may look into GDS also. ­

Item NO.2- ­

Exempt Department of Posts from the purview of reduction of staff strength and fill up all vacant posts in all cadres in Postal/RMS/MMS/Circle/Regional Offices/Postal Accounts and GDS including residual vacancies.

All efforts will be made by the Department to seek exemption of Department of Posts from the purview of the Screening Committee. Action will be taken to fill up the residual vacancies in various cadres. Heads of Circles will be advised to fill up residual vacancies in a time bound manner. . This will be monitored in the Directorate. In addition, it is also proposed to review the LGO examinations syllabus etc., to bring it in line with requirements of the job and thereby improve the success rate. An additional LGO examination will also be conducted with the revised syllabus.

With regard to the Franchising of Postal Outlets, it was explained that as already discussed with the Staff Side, the Scheme is being introduced as a pilot project in those areas where the Department has not been able to reach and extend postal facilities. The Scheme also provide for a review after six months of its introduction the results of which will be shared with the Unions.

With regard to closure of RMS offices, Staff Side was informed that the Mail Offices will be rationalized in accordance with the agreement reached with the Federation. The isolated case of Bihar Circle pointed out by Staff Side will be reviewed. Secretary stated that intention is to compete with the couriers and not curtail delivery.

Item No.4- ­

Ensure monopoly of collection, conveyance and delivery of letter mail by the--Department of Posts as recommended by the Parliamentary Standing Committee. ­

It was explained that adequate care is being taken to safeguard the monopoly of the Department while proposing amendment to IPO Act.

Item No.5 ­

Regularize Casual Labourers /Full Time/Part Time Contingency paid.

Staff Side stated that the part time casual labourers may be considered against the GDS vacancies. This will be examined.

Item No.6 ­

Filling up of all norm based LSG / HSG-II / HSG - I posts & Restore periodicity of Junior Accountant promotion to Senior Accountant as 3 years.

Information has been collected from all Circles on the number of LSG/HSG-IIIHSG-I posts lying vacant. Action has already been taken to promote HSG-II officials in HSG-I as per the relaxation granted by DOP&T. All Heads of Circles will be addressed to take time bound action to ensure that LSG/HSG-II posts are filled up without any delay. Action taken to fill up the post will be monitored by the Directorate. Issues on bench mark for LSG etc., will be examined. The issue regarding periodicity of promotion as Sr. Accountant will be got examined.

Instructions have already been given to all the Heads of Circles to clear the pending liabilities with the funds already allocated to them and intimate to Head Quarters the status of pending liabilities for release of additional funds where required. It was further decided to write to all Heads of Circles that wherever justified as per rules/guidelines, OTA will be paid to Post Office staff.

Item No.8 ­

Grant of compassionate appointments to eligible candidates and absorb all approved candidates.

All eligible candidates for- compassionate appointment will be considered in accordance with the rules on the subject. Regarding certain cases pending in a few Circles, the matter will be examined separately.

Item NO.9 ­

Complete take over of POSB and PLI by the Postal Department and accord full Autonomy to the Postal Board as in the case of Railway Board.

It was stated that the matter relating to Investment of P.O. Insurance Fund is under consideration of Government As regards POSS, the suggestions of Staff Side will be looked into.

Item No. 10 ­

Recognition of Federations and setting up of councils at all level.

Subject to certain changes I inclusions in the Constitution of NFPE, the proposal has been agreed by Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pension. The Federation is being addressed in this regard.